Biography

Kevin Wei Luo is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. His main research agenda focuses on how authoritarian institutions and power emerge in the shadow of conflict and wartime pressures. His dissertation project more specifically examines how rural state building altered patterns of regime control in post-conflict scenarios, via a mixed method analysis of cases such as the People’s Republic of China and the Kuomintang regime in Taiwan. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Chicago and a M.A. in Regional Studies: East Asia from Harvard University.

Research Interests

• Authoritarian regimes
• State formation and state building
• Conflict and security
• China, Taiwan, and East Asian politics

Education

• B.A. (Honors), Political Science, University of Chicago
• M.A., Regional Studies: East Asia, Harvard University